Oh hey, Richard Kelly, remember him? He's the director who came out of the gate with promise with "Donnie Darko, and then squandered that goodwill with the bellyflop that was "Southland Tales" and then the horror movie no one saw called "The Box." For the past few years he's been trying to get "Corpus Christi" off the ground, and in fact, just over a year ago he was hoping to pull together the financing to shoot it last summer. Obviously that didn't happen but a couple fellow genre specialists are helping him to get the movie rolling.

Robert Rodrigeuz's newly formed Quick Draw Productions will team with Kelly's Darko Entertainment and Eli Roth to back "Corpus Christi." And even more, "Carlos" and "Wrath Of The Titans" star Edgar Ramirez will take the lead. And if you think Kelly has had it with high concept fare, guess again. Set in the distant future of 2014, the film follows a mentally unstable Iraq war veteran named Paciencia "Patience" De La Rosa, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who forges a strange and dangerous friendship with Ralph Salverson, a Texas industrialist. Previous reports had the latter as the owner of a supermarket chain, but we guess that has been tweaked.

Well, we gotta hand it to Kelly -- he's certainly not taking the safe or easy route. Though this is apparently a "more traditional narrative" the logline suggests something that's anything but ordinary. Shooting kicks off in July.

Logged

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

The story of director Richard Kelly is one of breakout talent, high expectations, a colossal crash and a fading away from the spotlight. In sixteen years ago this month when the filmmaker became the toast of Sundance with “Donnie Darko,” and by the end of 2001, Hollywood was his oyster. Kelly used his cachet to make “Southland Tales,” a sprawling, star-studded misfire that went into the Cannes Film Festival for its big premiere and never recovered from the reviews. Kelly would make one more feature, the forgettable 2009 horror “The Box,” and he’s since stayed out of the limelight. But he could be plotting a major return.

“Donnie Darko” is currently getting a major revival across the pond, hitting the big screen in a new restoration, and receiving a lavish Blu-ray release from Arrow Video. And chatting with HMV, Kelly teased that he could be returning with another “Donnie Darko” movie set in same universe as his most famous film.

“I think there’s something much bigger and more ambitious to do in that universe. It’s big and expensive and I think there’s time to get to that. I want to make sure we’ve got the budget to do it justice and not to compromise anything. Another story in this world needs resources and we need to have that in place. I need to get my next film out of the gate and then we can go back and look at it,” he said.

As you can tell, he’s being very cautious and rightfully so. Kelly already received blowback for his director’s cut version of the movie (many prefer the original theatrical cut), and “Donnie Dark” is still his greatest legacy, so of course, he wants to make sure he does it right. (And while there is 2009’s “S. Darko,” that sequel had zero involvement from Kelly). As for his next movie? He isn’t saying just yet, but he could be shooting something before the year is out.

“I’ve been working on a lot of different projects. The trouble is they’re all very ambitious and expensive so they take a lot of time to get in place. We’re being very careful to set things up properly, but I’m planning to make up for lost time and make several movies back to back. It’s nice to be able to bring people back to where we started, but I plan to be back behind a camera in 2017,” he said.

“I’ve been working on a lot of different projects. The trouble is they’re all very ambitious and expensive so they take a lot of time to get in place. We’re being very careful to set things up properly, but I’m planning to make up for lost time and make several movies back to back. It’s nice to be able to bring people back to where we started, but I plan to be back behind a camera in 2017,” he said.

I'm glad, and I hope this is true. Finally decided to check out The Box after seeing the Cannes Cut of Southland Tales, and this Dude Has Got It, when It is an absurd amount of PKD Love. I wonder if Kelly has communed with VALIS.

i like that you like PKD. not only is he a rare bird in general, but he's a southern California writer, as in south of LA, as in Orange County, specifically Santa Ana. the only other popular writer i know associated with OC is Dean Koontz. and John Steinbeck famously lived at 504 Park in Laguna Beach. well, famous in Laguna Beach. but OC isn't well-known for writers. but they had PDK so it's like whatever anyway, you know.

i like that you like PKD. not only is he a rare bird in general, but he's a southern California writer, as in south of LA, as in Orange County, specifically Santa Ana. the only other popular writer i know associated with OC is Dean Koontz. and John Steinbeck famously lived at 504 Park in Laguna Beach. well, famous in Laguna Beach. but OC isn't well-known for writers. but they had PDK so it's like whatever anyway, you know.

PKD made University worthwhile to me... His works gave me insight to any course I wanted to take, math, philosophy history, then I read 'Divine Madness' a psychobiography of Dick's life along with The Exegesis. His writing has an arc that resembles his life, one that I could relate to more so than, like, DFW or Pynchon, who my friends were always talking about, so I read his entire available bibliography and related works in the library to have my own lit-obsession, I think.

His tales of OC in The Selected Letters of Philip K Dick are so colorful it made me yearn for the sun of my homestate, Texas. But I've got student loans to pay off, so I lugged it over to LA. Blerg. Maybe I'll warp into CSU Fullerton's special collections and read his manuscripts, once I work out the dimensional mechanics.

i only trust people who drop hard facts into casual conversation. kisses

if you travel to Fullerton you'll discover where republicans live. like in the movie Milk, when he has the republican debate, where the crowd is against him, that was in Fullerton. it's another side of CA

i only trust people who drop hard facts into casual conversation. kisses

if you travel to Fullerton you'll discover where republicans live. like in the movie Milk, when he has the republican debate, where the crowd is against him, that was in Fullerton. it's another side of CA